The Train to Moscow

Federico Ferrone and Michele Manzolini take us on a journey back in time with the dream of socialism and a train that takes us directly towards this dream of revolutions for equality and struggles for freedom. Using faded images and sound documents conserved at Bologna’s National Home Movies Archives, skilfully edited by Sara Fgaier, the narration (Sauro’s voiceover) rapidly turns into a bitter awareness, first personal and then collective, of the collapse of a value system that inspired an entire post-war generation. The contrast between enchantment and bewilderment is the beating heart of this movie that describes the crumbling of an ideal in the clash, both conceptual and visual, between reality and the celebratory images from the powerful propaganda machine of Soviet Communism.

Claudia Maci
Managing Director of Festival dei Popoli